George Pólya

1 George Pólya

An excellent problem solver. He designed a complete strategy for problem solving
that can help both the beginner and the advanced mathematician to solve both mathematical
and physical problems.

“His first job was to tutor the young son, Gregor, of a Hungarian baron. Gregor struggled due to his lack of problem solving skills.” Thus, according to Long ([1]), Polya insisted that the skill of “solving problems was not an inborn quality but, something that could be taught”.

In 1940, George Polya and his wife, Stella, (the only daughter of Swiss Dr. Weber, in Zurich) moved to the United States because of their justified fear of Nazism in Germany ([1]).

He taught at first, at Brown University, and then he moved permanently with his wife
to Stanford University. Became Professor Emeritus at Stanford in 1953. He also taught many classes to elementary and secondary classroom teachers, inspiring them how to motivate and teach their students how to solve problems.
His research was in several mathematical areas: functional analysis, probability, number theory, algebra, combinatorics and geometry.
Recieved The Mathematical Association of America Award ”for articles of expository excellence published in the College Mathematics Journal”.
He published in 1945 the book “How to Solve It” that sold in more than one million copies in 18 languages. Although an appropriate strategy can be learned by solving many problems, it is learned much faster if several, similar examples are worked out first with a teacher on an one–on–one basis. Here are some of the highlights of his simple strategies for problem solving:

1.

Understand the Problem

2.

Devise a Plan on how to approach the Problem; such a plan may include one or several of the following: